'She just always wanted to be normal,' Mom says after Charlotte's 8-hour surgery

ROYAL OAK, MI - As Charlotte Ponce recovered from surgery to create a new ear, her mother stroked her face and said she was excited for her daughter’s future.

“She just always wanted to be normal, and now she can be,” she said. “Her nose is already giving her a lot of confidence. This will even more so.”

Charlotte’s eyes fluttered open, and her mother bent closer.

“Pineapple,” Charlotte said softly.

“She’s got her humor,” her mother said with a smile. Before the operation, that’s the word Charlotte promised she would say afterward. Charlotte then added another word: pasta – her favorite food.

“She looks good,” said her dad, Tim Ponce. He noticed the skin on Charlotte’s chin was smoother.

Charlotte, an 11-year-old from Spring Lake whose face was severely injured in a raccoon attack in infancy, underwent an eight-hour operation Tuesday, April 15, at Beaumont Hospital to build a new right ear.

Dr. Kongkrit Chaiyasate, the pediatric plastic surgeon who created a new nose for Charlotte in 2012, said he was pleased with Tuesday’s operation.

He removed three sections of rib cartilage and carved them into an ear shape. The carving took four hours. Although he had practiced on potatoes, the cartilage was tougher to carve.

The new ear was implanted under the skin on Charlotte’s right wrist. In eight weeks, after the skin molds to the new ear, it will be transplanted in another operation. The procedure is extremely rare and a first for him, he said.

Chaiyasate also did some “revision” of scars on Charlotte’s face, thinning her right upper right lip and smoothing a scar on her chin.

Charlotte is expected to stay in the hospital for a week. The recovery will be painful, particularly in the rib area, Chaiyasate said.

“She’s a tough girl,” he said. “She’s never cried in front of me for the past six, seven surgeries.

MAILING ADDRESS

Cards and letters for Charlotte Ponce may be sent to P.O. Box 397, Fruitport, MI, 49415.

The injuries were inflicted 11 years ago, when a raccoon got in Charlotte’s crib and mauled her face. Sharon and Tim Ponce adopted Charlotte and her brother, Marshall, after they were removed from the birth parents’ home.

Since 2012, Charlotte has undergone multiple surgeries to rebuild her nose and to repair scars on her face. The media attention on her operations has resulted in hundreds of cards and letters of encouragement.

That support, combined with her new look, has had a big effect on Charlotte’s confidence, her mother said.